Jesus said to me, “The ones who love Me most are the ones who are desperate to give Me more.”
I heard the Lord speak that to me when spending time contemplating in Scripture the events of holy Wednesday. There are really only two events recorded in Scripture concerning Wednesday of Holy Week. One was the decision of Judas to betray Jesus, and the other was Mary of Bethany breaking the alabaster vial of spikenard and pouring it out on the head of Jesus. This was the third time that Mary anointed Jesus with spikenard oil. The first time was her first encounter with Christ, recorded in Luke 7. Having encountered the love of God in the presence of Jesus, she fell at his feet and, with her hair, wiped His feet with the oil and her tears. The one who is forgiven much began her journey of loving Christ wholeheartedly. The second time Mary anointed the feet of Jesus is recorded in John 12 in the home she shared with Lazarus and Martha. At one point, she took the spikenard oil and anointed the feet of Jesus, once again wiping His feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the fragrance of her worship. This was on the Saturday, the day before Palm Sunday. Mark 14 records that four days later, at the home of Simon, the leper Mary came in, and this time, broke the alabaster vial and poured out all the oil on the head of Jesus. Jesus said, “She has done what she could; she has anointed My body beforehand for the burial.” Mark 14:8. Why did Mary come to Jesus again, having just anointed his feet four days earlier in her own house? I believe it was because she was desperate to “give Him more.” She had used some of the oil to anoint His feet twice, but knowing that Jesus’s love would compel Him to give His all for the world (something the apostles had not even figured out yet), she was compelled with desperate lovesickness to give her all as she broke the vile and poured out all the oil on His head. Jesus said, “And truly I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, that also which this woman has done shall be spoken of in memory of her.” Mark 14:9. What a wild statement for Jesus to make, but Jesus is trying to say that if a person really understands and embraces the gospel, their response will be one like Mary of Bethany. When you’ve been forgiven much, you love much, and those who love Him most will always be desperate to give Him more. By the way, every time we give Him more we occupy more of the large room called “in Christ.”